The Ultra Group is a Brazilian conglomerate operating in the industry segments of energy and logistics infrastructure through its subsidiaries Ipiranga,Ultragaz and Ultracargo. These subsidiaries are fully controlled by the holding company Ultrapar. The Group's shares are traded under the name Ultrapar on São Paulo (B3) and on New York (NYSE) stock exchanges.
Corruption in Brazil exists on all levels of society from the top echelons of political power to the smallest municipalities. Operation Car Wash showed central government members using the prerogatives of their public office for rent-seeking activities,ranging from political support to siphoning funds from state-owned corporation for personal gain. The Mensalão scandal for example used taxpayer funds to pay monthly allowances to members of congress from other political parties in return for their support and votes in congress. Politicians also used the state-owned and state-run oil company Petrobras to raise hundreds of millions of reais for political campaigns and personal enrichment.
In 2015 and 2016,a series of protests in Brazil denounced corruption and the government of President Dilma Rousseff,triggered by revelations that numerous politicians allegedly accepted bribes connected to contracts at state-owned energy company Petrobras between 2003 and 2010 and connected to the Workers' Party,while Rousseff chaired the company's board of directors. The first protests on 15 March 2015 numbered between one and nearly three million protesters against the scandal and the country's poor economic situation. In response,the government introduced anti-corruption legislation. A second day of major protesting occurred 12 April,with turnout,according to GloboNews,ranging from 696,000 to 1,500,000. On 16 August,protests took place in 200 cities in all 26 states of Brazil. Following allegations that Rousseff's predecessor,Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,participated in money laundering and a prosecutor ordered his arrest,record numbers of Brazilians protested against the Rousseff government on 13 March 2016,with nearly 7 million citizens demonstrating.
Events in the year 2016 in Brazil:
General elections were held in Brazil on 7 October 2018 to elect the president,National Congress and state governors. As no candidate in the presidential election received more than 50% of the vote in the first round,a runoff round was held of those offices on 28 October. On that day,right-wing outsider candidate Jair Bolsonaro defeated leftist Fernando Haddad and was elected President of Brazil.
Deltan Martinazzo Dallagnol is a Brazilian politician affiliated to the New Party (NOVO). Dallagnol was also a federal prosecutor specialized in crimes against the national financial system and money laundering from 2003 to 2021. He is known for being the lead prosecutor of Operation Car Wash,an investigation into corruption in the Brazilian petroleum company Petrobras.
Simone Nassar Tebet is a Brazilian academic,lawyer,and politician who has served as the Brazilian Minister of Planning and Budget since 5 January 2023. She previously was Senator for Mato Grosso do Sul from 2015 to 2023,Vice-Governor of Mato Grosso do Sul from 2011 to 2014,and mayor of Três Lagoas from 2005 to 2010.
Pedro Pullen Parente is a Brazilian engineer,politician,administrator,and former president of the state oil company Petrobras.
Events in the year 2018 in Brazil.
The 2018 Brazil truck drivers' strike,also called the diesel crisis,was a strike of self-employed truck drivers that began on 21 May 2018.
The 56th Legislature of National Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the Federal Government of Brazil,composed by the Federal Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. It convened in Brasília on 1 February 2019,a month after the beginning of Jair Bolsonaro's only term as president,and ended on 31 January 2023.
Since the 2018 Brazilian general election,polling companies have published surveys tracking voting intention for the next election. The results of these surveys are listed below in reverse chronological order and include candidates who frequently polled above 3%.
A long series of criminal investigations have occurred in Brazil associated with Operation Car Wash. The first investigation was launched in March 2014,and is now known as phase 1 of the investigation,with subsequent inquiries numbered sequentially and having code names such as phase 2,phase 3,and so on. By February 2021,there were 80 announced phases of Operation Car Wash.
The 57th Legislature of National Congress is the current meeting of the legislative branch of the Federal Government of Brazil,composed by the Federal Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. It convened in Brasília on 1 February 2023,a month after the inauguration of the winner of the 2022 presidential election.
The second presidency of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva started on 1 January 2023,when he was inaugurated as the 39th President of Brazil. Lula was elected for a third term as President of Brazil on 30 October 2022,by obtaining 50.9% of the valid votes in the 2022 Brazilian general election,defeating his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro. Lula is the first Brazilian president to ever be elected more than twice as well as being the oldest person to ever be elected president in Brazil.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Geraldo Alckmin were inaugurated as 39th president of Brazil and 26th vice president,respectively,on 1 January 2023,in a ceremony held in the National Congress in Brasília,beginning the third Lula administration. At the age of 77,Lula became the oldest president-elect to assume office and the only president in Brazilian history to serve two non-consecutive terms in office through the democratic vote.
Theodorico Bezerra Netto is a Brazilian businessman and politician,affiliated with the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB). He briefly served as one of the senators from the state of Rio Grande do Norte,serving only 5 days. He held the position due to the previous senator,Jean Paul Prates,taking up a role in the Lula administration as the head of Petrobras. Theodorico Netto was succeeded by Rogério Simonetti Marinho,who had been elected to the position in 2022. Prior to being senator,he had been the mayor of the town of Tangaráfrom 1989 to 1992.
Caio Mario Paes de Andrade is an entrepreneur,administrator,investor,and was a member of Minister Paulo Guedes' economic team. He served as the president of SERPRO,Special Secretary for Bureaucracy Reduction,Management,and Digital Government,responsible for the digital strategy and creation of the GOV.BR Platform,and also as the president of Petrobras from June 2022 to January 2023.
AndréLuiz Ceciliano is a Brazilian lawyer and politician affiliated with the Workers' Party (PT). He served as mayor of Paracambi twice and was elected state deputy of Rio de Janeiro four times. Ceciliano was also the president of the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro (ALERJ). He ran for a seat in the Federal Senate of Brazil in the 2022 Rio de Janeiro state election,but was defeated by Romário.
Magda Maria de Regina Chambriard is a Brazilian chemical engineer. In June 2024 she became the president of Petrobras,the state-owned petroleum corporation that was ranked the 54th largest company in the world in 2024 by Forbes Global 2000. Between 2012 and 2016 she was the first female director-general of the National Agency of Petroleum,Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP),the agency charged with regulating Brazil's oil industry.
